


The Tending

by morrezela



Series: The Husbandman [2]
Category: Supernatural RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, Arranged Marriage, Fantasy, Gods, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-06
Updated: 2013-03-06
Packaged: 2017-12-04 10:48:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/709914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morrezela/pseuds/morrezela
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sequel to The Husbandman. Jensen still hasn’t forgiven Jared for the manner in which their marriage was secured. Jared sets out to be forgiven.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Tending

**Author's Note:**

> All mistakes that you find are my own.

Married life was not supposed to be like this, Jared mused. He had spent many, many long years awaiting for one of the villagers to accept his overtures, and in those years he had always held on to the knowledge that the end result of all of the waiting would be a caring spouse that would love and cherish him in soul and body.

His husband didn’t quite agree with him on that plan.

Jensen was beautiful and kind, strong and stubborn and most decidedly vicious and tenacious. He hadn’t allowed Jared back in their marriage bed since the first night of consummation, and gave the forest edging around the town the widest berth possible.

There was no calming influence to the vastness of Jared’s domain, no cultivator to come and grow the woods and fields back to their former lushness.

It was quite disappointing, actually. Jared had expected a certain amount of hesitancy. Jensen was not known for being rash or impulsive. Fair and kind were words used to describe both his countenance and inner being, and with their consummation, both attributes had grown and blossomed.

The townsfolk marveled at his beauty, and Jared knew that such fineness would only develop with time. The forest would grow abundant with Jensen’s care and would once again ring with the songs of the fey tongue.

The main problem was that Jensen was adamant that he was going to remain in his little cabin, working in his sad blacksmithing shop and ignoring the fact that he had a lonely husband in the woods. He told Jared as much the last time that he deigned to speak to him, and told the hounds of his dislike for their master whenever Jared attempted to broach the subject with him upon subsequent visits because Jensen had taken up refusing to even speak with his spouse.

It was most infuriating. Moreover, Jared’s sex was fast becoming impatient with Jensen’s constant refusal of coupling. Jared was no stranger to self-pleasuring, but once he had tasted of the bounty of his marriage bed, his body grew restless to sample from it again.

The yearnings distracted him from his hunt. Though he drew upon his bow and chased the fastest prey for miles, he could not drive away the hungry pangs of want nor cover the sting of rejection every time that Jensen rebuffed him. He howled out his lonesomeness until all of the hounds and wolves of the forest bayed with him, but the only thing that got him was a few overheard comments from villagers talking about their imminent demise now that Jensen had ‘let the beast of the forest betwixt his thighs.’

Their words were insulting, and Jared was half tempted to attempt bringing his wrath against them simply to see if he could. He and his powers were sworn to the village, but he was also inextricably bonded to his husband, surely there would be a loophole for defense of his spouse.

But he knew that such an action would likely provoke Jensen to further distance, and he had no desire to be without marital comfort for decades as Jensen took his time to forgive and forget.

As he approached Jensen’s smithing shop for his daily visit, Jared felt a stab of envy for the flowers that grew alongside its walls. They blossomed hale and hearty where the forest languished. He knew that Jensen’s cottage was the same. The flora there responded to its new master, and the trees at the edge of the forest had begun to turn their tops towards the town as they sought out the presence of their husbandman.

The thought brought a scowl to Jared’s face. For years the village had hold of his bounty, his beloved, and now they reaped the reward of their joining. It was most vexing.

“Jensen!” he greeted loudly, banishing the unpleasant expression from his face. Not only did it make him less comely, but signs of anger and aggression tended to make Jensen more wary of him as if he still believed the stories of the elders that warned of the wrath of the forest huntsman.

As always, Jensen didn’t return his greeting. Some of Jared’s own hounds even ignored his approach, annoying little fur balls who had grown too attached to their master’s husband and had turned coat in their loyalty. It wouldn’t bother Jared, for he was much enamored of his love himself, if Jensen were actually receptive of his presence.

Leaning down to scratch behind the ear of the wolfhound that came to greet him, Jared’s eyes slid over the finery that Jensen’s forge had produced since the day before. He ignored the horseshoes and items of necessity that were always being made to focus in on the prettier things that his husband had crafted. The jewelry and instruments had started to take on an otherworldly appearance since their wedding night, a side effect of their bonding, but he doubted that Jensen had noticed.

Or, rather, Jensen had probably noticed and decided to ignore it in his stubbornness.

“How is my beloved this fair morn?” Jared asked as he wound his way closer.

Jensen took his eyes off the copper he was pounding with his mallet to spare Jared a glare before returning to his work. Sad to say, it was a great improvement over other days where Jensen would pay him no heed at all.

“Another bowl? Or is it a cooking pot?” Jared asked as he came near not fearing the fire or the flames from Jensen’s hearth. It would take a great deal of enchanted wood being burned for it to injure his skin, and more than that to cause actual harm.

He wondered for a moment if Jensen had noticed that he had no longer burned on his arms from his metal working like he used to, that his skin was now as his husband’s was, strong in its magic and deity.

Jensen paid his question no regard as he pulled and pounded the metal, willing it into a new shape, so Jared took the opportunity to appreciate his husband’s fine muscles and the sheen of sweat that was upon Jensen’s forehead. After being held at a distance for so long, it was nice to see such a view close up even if he was not the cause for the perspiration and muscle flexing.

“You look heated,” Jared observed, earning himself another glare from those beautiful green eyes. He knew it to be a redundant observation, and he was in luck this morning as he managed to irk Jensen enough to earn his second, scornful look.

His eyes had colored darker, mossy green reflecting the verdant colors of the forest showing him to be no longer human. The sight soothed away some of Jared’s worry as it served as a reminder that he was indeed wed, and the constant fear of losing his beloved to another was a far past thing.

“You would like the river in the woods,” Jared said, his eyes tracing a bead of sweat down Jensen’s neck to where it disappeared behind his leather apron. “It is cool and refreshing. The moss grows thick there, and it wants only for some tending to blossom forth.”

Despite his multitudinous attempts to tempt his beloved into their forest, Jensen had yet to show the slightest interest in exploring the land of his union. Still, he couldn’t stay in the village forever, and one day, Jared was certain, Jensen would find interest in something that Jared mentioned.

Jensen grabbed his tongs and hefted the small pot from his working station, grunting in irritation as he had to maneuver past Jared to get to his water barrel to plunge his work beneath its placid surface. The steam billowed out, hazing around Jensen’s face as the morning sun filtered through the tiny drops of water.

Jared felt his breath catch at the sight, and it was only when Jensen glanced back at him that he realized how broadly he was smiling.

The slight downwards dip of those eyes, and the slight fluttering of Jensen’s lashes were barely noticeable, but they were enough of a clue to let Jared know that the steam and heat were not the only cause of the red flush upon his husband’s face.

Encouraged, he slid from the place he had been sitting and moved closer, reaching out with his hand to grab the still hot metal from Jensen and place it on a nearby surface so that it did not get damaged.

Jensen stood dumbly, holding his tongs and staring at Jared’s hand as if he expected Jared to have burns the same as any human would have form performing the same act.

Jared sent him a tiny grin, and stepped in close, taking the tongs away and dropping them to the hard packed earth beneath their feet before cradling Jensen’s face in his unburned palm.

Quick pants of breath caressed Jared’s thumb where it rested next to his husband’s mouth, and Jared felt stirring in his groin at only that. Clearly he was in need of succor for his flesh, and Jensen had to be nearly as bad off, so he tilted his husband’s face up and stole a kiss.

Jensen whimpered in protest, but didn’t pull away from the touch, so Jared pushed in closer relieved at the welcome he received. As they kissed, Jensen shuffled just a minute bit forward, so Jared grabbed at his husband’s hip, pulling them flush together. The leather of Jensen’s work apron squeaked as it rubbed against the soft calfskin of Jared’s breeches, and the sound drove Jared almost insane with want, memories of their first union coming to life behind his closed eyes.

It was easy to sneak a hand under the apron to stroke at the rough spun linen that made up the trousers that Jensen wore. Finer materials by far had been left in tribute to Jared, and it irked him to find that the people of the village had yet to adorn his mate with better finery. It would have to be seen to soon. He may be tied to the area by oath, but that did not mean that he meant to be disregarded in such a fashion.

Jensen gasped a little into Jared’s mouth as his fingers stroked over his sex, and Jared was never one to pass up such an opportunity. He stroked his tongue inside of that warm, wet place enjoying the pleasures that his husband’s mouth had to offer while he undid the fastenings to the man’s trousers.

Another groan of disapproval came out of Jensen’s mouth when Jared’s hand wrapped itself around his cock, but the push that came at his shoulders was half-hearted at best and nonexistent after the second pull. By the fourth stroke, Jensen was clinging to Jared’s shoulders, strong workman’s hands gripping with bruising strength as his hips tentatively thrust into Jared’s palm.

It thrilled him to be the cause of such pleasure, to be the one to teach his beloved of such things, and Jared had a hard time choking back words of praise and encouragement. Bringing Jensen’s brain back into their proceedings seemed a poor idea, so instead he took one of his husband’s hands down to the apex of his own thighs and pressed its palm gently against his own arousal, eager to show him that he was not the only one affected by their interaction.

Jensen’s hand moved hesitantly against him, but Jared did not attempt to hurry him. His husband needed to move at a pace that was comfortable for him, and forcing him to be more pleasing would do no good.

Instead Jared focused on making things pleasurable for his beloved, stroking the clear fluid that had begun to leak from his tip along his shaft to smooth the drag of Jared’s hand against him. Jensen gave him a breathy sigh as a reward for his hard work, and Jared tried not to buck against Jensen’s hand in response

It was fantastic, breath stealing, heavenly… then a shocked gasp reached Jared’s ears. The noise didn’t come from Jensen, trapped as his mouth was by Jared’s own, but it certainly reached his husband’s ears.

Jensen jerked violently away, his face turning almost purple as his eyes lit upon the intruder.

It was one of the elders. Her gaze was full of suspicion and mistrust as she looked upon Jared. In that moment, the only thing that Jared could feel towards her was hate for interrupting a sacred moment between him and his chosen, and without a thought, he allowed his hounds to do his talking for him. They growled in unison, taking up from their places on the ground and advancing upon her.

Jensen slapped him.

“Stop that,” he commanded, eyes furious.

“She…”

“Is coming here on business and you, you are not welcome. Go,” Jensen ordered.

“But,” Jared gaped.

“BEGONE!” Jensen roared pointing towards the forest, his cheeks still flushed, and his beautiful green eyes not looking at Jared’s face.

Jared swallowed and moved to go past his husband, but Jensen’s hand curled around his hip. He halted his stride hopefully only to feel Jensen yank his shirttails out of his breeches, pulling them down over his thighs.

“Quit being so obscene,” Jensen told him. “There is no need to show the town your overly large manhood.”

It was meant as an insult, but Jared tried to focus on the unwitting compliment rather than the dismissal as he slunk away from his beloved’s place of business.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jensen did not show up to his shop the next day nor was he in his cottage when Jared came by to check on him. The hounds, when one finally showed up, informed Jared that Jensen was staying in his parent’s barn.

The thought made him furious for a multitude of reasons, but it also hurt him that Jensen would chose such a place over seeking shelter with his husband in their forest.

Was it truly so bad? Jensen had chosen him by the rules of his own people, and he had no dislike of Jared’s physicality. There shouldn’t be such animosity between them, yet there was a constant undercurrent of aggression and fear every time that Jared attempted to breech the gap.

He went hunting for a few days, hoping to find clarity in the chase and freeing air that encompassed all that was not the village, but he was distracted and heart sore. He found himself missing shots and crying when he finally did part a deer from its life. It was all very pathetic, and it was unbefitting for a god of the forest to be so taken down, but he did not know how to help it.

Eventually he determined that he would just have to throw himself upon his husband’s tender nature. Surely if he begged and pleaded, Jensen would forgive him.

“And what,” a teasing, feminine voice lilted at him, “are you planning on doing with his forgiveness, mighty huntsman?”

Jared spun and raised his bow at the interloper. Her dark, rich hair fell around slim, naked shoulders. Her eyes danced with mischief as she eyed the tip of his arrow. Her bosoms were uncovered and rather… perky, but her hair wrapped around her waist in a thick braid, covering her womanhood, though just barely.

“I am not the one you think to penetrate,” she mused merrily, “and certainly not with that.”

Jared numbly lowered his bow. He had not seen a nymph in his woods for decades, and even then she had merely been traipsing through his lands as a shortcut to her chosen glen.

“What are you doing in my forest?” Jared demanded. He had been given no gifts or favors, nor had he received any requests to harbor new dwellers amongst his boughs and streams.

“I heard that there was a new husbandman in these lands,” she replied, “but it seems that rumor is not quite accurate.”

“If you seek gossip, you may be on your way. I’ll set my hounds upon you if you linger.”

She looked amused at that. “You will? When you look so much like a kicked dog yourself? Tell me, fearless huntsman, where is your chosen?”

“That is none of your concern,” Jared told her abruptly.

“Oh, but it is. You see, I have parted ways with my old satyr. He was more goat than man, if you catch my drift.”

“Well your business is none of my concern,” Jared revised his statement.

“Oh, poor huntsman, so long without companionship, so long the outsider. I think that you have more concern for me that you think,” she teased.

Jared scowled at her. “I’ll not be unfaithful to my husband,” he said, warning clear in his voice.

She laughed at him. “And I would not ask it of you. I have no desire to be playing the harlot again. My last satyr was problem enough, and I prefer to be able to choose the man and method of my pleasuring. No, sad little demi-god, I can offer you a plan to woo your beloved back to your arms. In exchange, I want the right to be head nymph of the copses.”

“Wood nymph, figures,” Jared muttered to himself. “You do realize that such things are my husband’s choice and not my own?”

“I have faith that you can turn his pretty ear well enough. Besides, do you truly want to spend the next several decades pining for him? Or, worse yet, have your husband become your enemy as his human family dies off around him, leaving him alone?”

“Nymphs are possessed of silver tongues,” Jared hedged, temptation flowing in his veins.

“And your husband of a silver voice, or so the birds say.”

“Chatty little things, I should train a lion to eat them,” Jared dismissed.

“Mmmm, but if you lure your husband to the woods, he’ll draw many more lions to the forest for you choose from. Where the prey is bountiful, so are the predators,” she reminded him as if Jared didn’t full well know that.

Jared was strong, had trained himself to be such as too many years passed and generation after generation of chosen all fell short of his tests. Yet he knew that he had no options left that his own mind could conjure.

“Fine, bestow me with advice that enables me to have my husband by my side, and I will persuade him to allow you to rule the copses,” Jared agreed.

She laughed and clapped her hands together in delight, “Sophia,” she introduced herself, holding her hand out in greeting like Jared had often seen the humans do.

Begrudgingly, he shook the slim appendage before pulling his hand back. “What is it that you would have me do?”

Sophia smiled wide and brightly at him. “Why woo the poor man, of course!”

Jared frowned at that. “But I have already…”

“Huntsman, truly you do not understand humans at all,” she interrupted him.

“Jensen isn’t a human, not any longer,” he argued.

“Yet he does not agree with you on this, does he? He has grown up and lived only within his own mortality. That he is no longer such does not separate him from who he was.”

Jared couldn’t refute that. It shamed him to think that he needed to consult a nymph for such enlightenment, but he supposed it was better than fumbling around for another five years, trying to catch Jensen’s attention for a few fleeting moments.

“I am a fool,” Jared mused.

Sophia laughed at him again, “Most males are.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Every year the village council would leave Jared tokens to seek his favor. Incense and finery and not a few of Jensen’s own handcrafted jewelry pieces would find their way to the large stone altar that had been in the family for generations.

It was their way of trying to woo him, Jared figured. They wanted to ease his wrath in case he found a way around his mother’s deal, and he had always appreciated the finery they left him, so he had never discouraged the practice.

In point of fact, he preferred to encourage it as the villagers annoyed him greatly with their small minded nature and constant belittling of his name. He rather believed that they owed him some recompense for their fear mongering.

Despite the somewhat cowardly reasons behind the humans’ actions, Jared decided that it was a good model to base his seduction of his husband upon. They were human ideas and concepts, they should work well.

The forest, despite not growing as well as it would with a husbandman, was full of fragrant saps and barks that would make a pleasing scent when lit aflame. Jensen, of course, had no offering place, so when the hounds informed Jared that their master had gone to his workshop for the day, Jared painstakingly built one for his beloved out of the smoothest stones that he could drag out of the river’s clutches.

It was finer than his familial altar by far, but Jared knew that Jensen deserved such beauty in his offering place. No doubt in a hundred years the humans would be making the trek to this monument instead of the one farther out in the woods, but Jared tried not to feel spiteful of that.

He stuffed wild mosses and flowers into the crevices that the stones made, making certain that the new offering was at full display, but it was for naught. Jensen arrived home far later than he normally did, and in the darkness, he couldn’t see the gift that Jared had brought for him.

It stung at first, but Jared hadn’t spent hundreds of years waiting just to be foiled upon his first attempt.

He lit his offering fire early in the morning instead. The dampness of the dew made the fire sizzle and hiss, but the sweet fragrance that wafted towards the cabin was quite delicious. If Jared had received such an offering, he would be quite pleased indeed and maybe would have granted a blessing of good game to the hunter that offered it.

Once the smoke wafted over to the cottage and seeped in, Jensen wasn’t so enamored of the gift.

He came out of his home sniffling and sneezing, coughing and wheezing. It was a very bad sign, and not just for Jared’s love life. All of his kind had some weakness. His mother would not have been forced to broker her deal if that was not the case, but for Jensen to show illness from mere smoke was troublesome indeed.

“Are you trying to kill me now?” Jensen demanded as he strode over to Jared.

“What? No!” Jared assured him, damning the meddlesome tree nymph with all of his might. She’d be dead by the sun’s setting if she had just put him further out of favor with his chosen.

“Really?” Jensen coughed, “Because the whole town knows that I fall ill to the smoke of meadow’s wood.”

“I would not!” Jared said, desperate to be believed. “I merely wished to, to make you an offering.”

Jensen stared at him, his eyes watering pathetically. “You what?”

“I made you an altar,” Jared said as he gestured towards the small stone construct. “I lit you incense upon it as a sign of my favor towards you and my wish to incur your favor in return.”

“This is what you’ve been up to while you’ve been gone?” Jensen asked as he dabbed at his running nose with his sleeve.

“Not entirely?” Jared offered.

Jensen glared at him, though his watering eyes spoiled the impact of his gaze’s weight.

“I was hunting,” Jared defended himself.

“Given that you’re the huntsman, I’m not surprised by that,” Jensen replied flatly. Clearly that was not what he had wanted to hear.

“I may have been pining?” Jared offered.

Jensen took a deep breath like he was about to start yelling at Jared again, but he started hacking and coughing instead. He glared at Jared one last time and stomped back to his cottage, firmly shutting the door behind him.

Jared stared at his beautiful fire and resigned himself to carrying buckets of water to extinguish it before it could finish burning out as a proper offering would.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“So clearly you are not meant to be wed,” Sophia told him when he came to hunt her down. She had taken up residence in a tall evergreen, and even though Jared had to kill her and thereby sever the tree’s life essence now that it was bound to hers, he was going to miss it from his forest. It was a rather lovely specimen. It reminded him of Jensen, all green and strong and…

“You smile when you think of him,” Sophia said as she danced away from her tree.

“I will smile more when I part you from your life,” Jared responded as he pulled his hunting knife from its sheath.

“Why are males always so dramatic?” Sophia asked as she sat down upon a rock and began to unbraid her long hair.

Jared growled, and his hunting pack growled with him, their voices echoing through the woods, causing birds and deer to scatter.

Sophia rolled her eyes at him. “Don’t be so dour. He’ll appreciate the gesture even if the execution was poor.”

“I tire of him bidding me away, and your assistance only served to earn me another rejection,” Jared told her.

“And before that how many had you earned on your own?” she asked. “Many, I’d gather. You have been a bachelor too long.”

“I am not a bachelor now.”

“You might as well be. Tell me, Jared have you asked him what it is that he wants? Or have you only told him as no doubt everybody else in his life has? Or is it perhaps that you are afraid to ask him? Do you worry that he will voice that he no longer wishes to be your husband?”

“You ask lies meant to vex me,” Jared accused.

“I ask nothing that you have not thought yourself. When men cannot get by with gifts, they must search within themselves for truth. It is a painful endeavor, but one I suggest you attempt,” Sophia said as she began to braid her hair again.

“I should just kill you now and be done with it,” Jared grumbled.

“And have no company to run to when you and Jensen fight?”

“You’ll just take his side anyway,” Jared grumbled.

“He will soon be the husbandman of the forest. I have no true choice in the matter, but I do promise to try to whisper pleasant things in his ear about you,” Sophia said merrily as she merged again with her tree.

Its boughs shook merrily at him as he drove his knife in after her. He could find his axe and chop it down, but that would be too much work, and he had other things to preoccupy him.

There was the possibility that the nymph was right, and if so, he needed to talk to Jensen. If not, he could always come back and fell her later.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I thought I told you to be gone,” Jensen said as he opened the door to his cottage. The dogs were milling happily around his feet, and his hearth blazed merrily behind him.

“That was days ago,” Jared said, making his eyes as wide and innocent as possible. He may or may not have looked like one of his hounds as he did it.

Jensen arched an eyebrow at him. “And I have given you reason to think that my opinion has changed?”

“Jensen, please,” Jared said as he stepped closer, “I ache to be near you again.”

“You can take care of your manhood by yourself,” Jensen told him, arms crossing over his chest.

“And what of my loneliness? What of yours?” Jared pressed.

“Jared,” Jensen sighed tiredly.

“You are my husband.”

Anger flashed into Jensen’s eyes. “And what choice had I in the matter? I won a game I didn’t know I was playing and was sold to you by the very people that are supposed to keep watch for me. I was tricked, deceived and mislead. And for all that trouble brought upon me I am offered not comfort, only fear.”

“I would offer you anything you asked of me,” Jared told him earnestly.

“You cannot give me what I want, Jared. You have already taken that choice away from me,” Jensen told him softly.

It hurt his heart to hear those words. “You wish to be rid of me? To not be my husband?” he choked the question out of a tight throat, miserable in a way that he had never experienced in all of his years of waiting.

“Yes? No? I will not lie and say that I was unaffected by you or that I do not find comfort in your touches, but you tricked me into consummation when I did not understand the consequences of it.”

Jared nodded. “I cannot change the circumstance of our union, nor can I say that I regret it. It was how it needed to be, but I do regret how it has hurt you. You are the most important of people to me, Jensen. I would very much like, if possible, for you to consider allowing me to win you.”

Surprise if not outright shock stole across Jensen’s face just before he flushed and looked at the toes of his boots. “You are intent on wrong footing me,” he muttered.

“I am intent on wooing you,” Jared corrected, pleased that he had finally done something right.

“I am not a maiden,” Jensen reminded him.

“You have told me this before. I fail to see why you think that I have forgotten,” Jared told him.

“I… well I may wish to be spoken to and talked with and other things, but…” Jensen trailed off with an embarrassed shrug.

“But?” Jared prompted, allowing his interest to show on his face along with his support. Willingness to listen was key.

“If you are intent on playing husband, I… my bed is… I…” Jensen stuttered to a halt, the very tips of his ears flaming red.

“I do not play at anything, my beloved chosen one, but if you are seeking my marital companionship in your bedchambers, I will gladly grant it.”

“I do not want you to think that it means something it does not,” Jensen hesitated.

Jared’s laugh rang out into the night and he shook his head fondly. “I am well aware of the physical needs and wants of your body. I’ll not use them against you. Is that what you seek an answer to?”

“Don’t laugh at me,” Jensen snapped.

Jared reached his hand out to cup the side of Jensen’s face. “I would not.”

“You already have.”

Jared could see his beloved’s point. “Well, I am mostly ‘uncivilized’ as your people would say. My forest is not the only entity in need to your tending.”

Jensen bit down on his lip and glanced over his shoulder into his home. “I reserve the right to kick out you out again.”

Jared pressed a kiss to the turned cheek and watched in satisfaction as Jensen’s hand immediately came up to touch the spot in wonder.

“And I reserve the right to do anything within my power to ensure that you let me back in.”

“That doesn’t sound ominous at all,” Jensen said, but there was teasing in his tone that lessened the sting of his words, and his body moved at an angle that was clearly an invitation for Jared to slide past the doorframe and into the cottage.

Jared gave his husband another kiss as he passed through, and he resigned himself to letting Sophia live another day.


End file.
